Railways aim redemption

With the influx of youth,Railways are all set to unleash their fresh talent in the Vijay Hazare Trophy,starting Wednesday. Grouped with the remaining Central Zone sides — Uttar Pradesh,Vidarbha,Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — in Indore,Kartik feels the new look team had just the right amount of preparation time,coming into the tournament.

“We just arrived in Indore after a good camp in Delhi. Qualifying for the T20 knockouts (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) was a big boost,so our run into this tournament has been a good one,” Kartik said,speaking to Sportline.

The squad has been given an injection of confidence with the return of fast bowler Shailender Gehlot,who is making his comeback after an injury kept him on the sidelines. Salil Agharkar,Deepak Kishanlal Yadav and Sanjoy Binkar are some of the new faces to have made the cut into the 15-man side.

“As people would have noticed,our team had a transformation period during the Ranji season and now we found a good balance with the introduction of a few fresh faces. The youngsters have taken their place in the side for the shorter format. The preparations have been good with them,but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes from here on,” he added.

The Railways captain is banking on the youngsters to make his side a force to reckon with. “According to me,youth dominates experience in our side. The only real veterans are Sanjay (Bangar),Yere (Goud),TP Singh and me. The experience ends right there as a bunch of talented youngsters form the rest of squad. Faiz (Fazal) is a quality kid,while we also have players like (Marripuri) Suresh who has got a few seasons under his belt. Overall it has the right flavour to it,” Kartik explained.

Tough opener
Railways have a tough opener against Uttar Pradesh,but Kartik believes he side is ready for the challenge. “Uttar Pradesh is obviously a quality side and a tough contender,but they will miss the services of Suresh Raina and Praveen Kumar. We beat them in the T20 match. It is a tough opener for us,but then again it is going to be the case against most teams in the 50-over game. On our part,we will play to the best of our abilities and hopefully make it to pre-quarters.”

The next few matches after their opening game are relatively easier,but the skipper does not want to make the mistake of taking any team lightly. “Well,nothing is really easy when it comes down to one-day matches. Take tennis for example,sometimes Roger Federer is beaten by an unseeded player and most other times he coasts to a victory. All I would like to say is that,we are a confident team with a talented bunch and the onus is on us to try and make the most of it.”